The Shadow
HOT SPRINGS — The Virginia Opera will honor Black History Month with a performance of “Oh Freedom!” at Bath County High School on Friday, Jan. 31, at 2:15 p.m.
This hour-long performance is free and open to the public.
Oh Freedom! highlights African American history through the power of music. Performed by members of the Virginia Opera Herndon Foundation Emerging Artist Program, the musical journey begins in Africa and follows a chronological path through the Middle Passage to songs of slavery to the Civil Rights movement and finally to the election of the first African American President of the United States.
Learn how the drums and songs of West Africa became the call and response songs of slavery, and how codes were hidden in the songs to help slaves to freedom.
The journey continues to New York and the Harlem Renaissance as well as the world of opera with Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
Oh Freedom! recognizes the importance of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Marian Anderson, Arthur Ashe and other “greats” who made an impact in the fight for freedom and equality.
The title, Oh Freedom!, comes from the post-Civil War freedom song of the same name, a favorite among Civil Rights activists.
This performance of Oh Freedom! is sponsored by the Bath County Arts Association and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
